10 pieces of classical music to help ease exam stress

30 May 2025, 15:08 | Updated: 3 June 2025, 18:45

Beat exam stress with these calming pieces of classical music.

Whether you are at school or university, exam season has well and truly descended over the students of the UK. If you want to beat exam stress, look no further than some of the most relaxing classical music to calm your nerves and get you ready to take on the academic challenges that lie ahead.

Read more: 75% of students say classical music is best soundtrack for revision

1. Claude Debussy - Clair de lune

   Clair de lune is Debussy’s musical depiction of moonlight. Filled with rich and colourful harmonies and relaxed rhythms, it’s hard to imagine another piece of music that could instantly ignite such inner peace: perfect for quelling those pre-exam nerves.

   

   Lang Lang – Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L.75: III. Clair de lune

2. Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata Pathetique, 2nd Movement

   The lyrical second movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata offers a moment of stillness amid the composer’s typically stormy style. Its tender, flowing melody feels like a comforting conversation with an old friend: just what you need to reset and recharge between study sessions.

   

   Beethoven – Pathetique Sonata 2nd Movement

3. Debbie Wiseman - Forgive me

   Debbie Wiseman’s score for TV series Wolf Hall is the perfect soundtrack to your revision. It brings a sense of emotional clarity that can be grounding and soothing during stressful moments.

   Read more: Download the sheet music for Debbie Wiseman’s ‘A First Sunrise’, premiered on Classic FM

   

   Debbie Wiseman - Forgive Me (from Wolf Hall) / @coversart

4. Engelbert Humperdinck - Evening Prayer

   Sleep can go awry when you’re revising, so next time you’re struggling to get to sleep, have a listen to this lullaby from Humperdinck’s opera, Hansel and Gretel. This gentle duet is pure bedtime magic and might be just what you need to send you off to the Land of Nod.

   

   Evening Prayer | Engelbert Humperdinck| Hansel and Gretel | Opera Holland Park 2023

5. Arvo Pärt – Spiegel im Spiegel

   Spiegel im Spiegel, with its simple piano arpeggio and slow-moving melody on the cello, soothes with its gentle repetition and spacious silences. Like a slow, meditative breath, it’s the perfect way to calm racing thoughts and enter a peaceful state of mind.

   

   Renaud Capuçon plays Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel (with pianist Guillaume Bellom)

6. Charles Villiers Stanford - The Blue Bird

   The key to calming your exam nerves can often lie in imaging yourself somewhere serene. Whisk yourself away to a still and beautiful lake with Stanford’s setting of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge’s poem, ‘The Blue Bird’.

   

   VOCES8: The Blue Bird by Charles Villiers Stanford

7. Margaret Bonds - Bells from the Spiritual Suite

   In Bells, Bonds captures the essence of distant chimes through shimmering piano textures. It’s music that feels like it’s ringing out across a quiet landscape, helping clear your head and bring focus.

   

   "The Bells" from Spiritual Suite by Margaret Bonds performed by Samantha Ege

8. Frédéric Chopin - 24 Preludes

   In Chopin’s glorious piano cycle, he uses a circle of fifths to guide him through all major and minor keys, with each major key followed by its relative minor. They take about 45 minutes to play all the way through (the perfect length to get a small topic under your belt?!) or listen to them individually, as they each have their own character and feel to match your mood.

   

   Lang Lang — Chopin, “Raindrop” Prelude on the Steinway & Sons Spirio | r

9. Erik Satie: Gymnopédie No.1

   Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1 is the musical equivalent of floating on a cloud. Its simplicity and gentle rhythm are wonderfully grounding, and perfect for keeping your cool during high-pressure revision.

   Read more: The best (and strangest) pieces of music by Erik Satie

   

   Khatia Buniatishvili - Erik Satie: Gymnopédie No.1

10. Anton Bruckner - Locus iste

    Sometimes simplicity is the most calming thing, and that certainly is the case with Bruckner’s most well known choral piece. Let yourself be wrapped up in these gentle harmonies, as these clear, unhurried choral lines bring a sense of grounded peace — a beautiful antidote to the chaos of revision.

    

    Locus Iste - Bruckner - Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short